


A Night at the Poker Table

by kyrrann



Series: Mass Effect Drabbles [3]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Card Games, Comedy, Drabble, F/M, Humor, Poker, Strip Poker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 02:19:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7958545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyrrann/pseuds/kyrrann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard spends the evening playing poker with Garrus, Kaidan, Joker and James.</p><p>MEFF Facebook group drabble challenge. The prompt was "first mistakes".</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Night at the Poker Table

Shepard walked into the Normandy’s lounge looking forward to a relaxing evening. She walked towards the bar to pour herself a drink and noticed Garrus, Kaidan, Joker and James smoking cigars and playing a game of poker on the other side of the room. She approached the group, drink in hand. “What are we playing tonight, gentlemen? Care to deal me in?”

“Uh Shepard, I hear it’s never a good idea to play poker with one’s commanding officer.” Garrus looked uncertain. “Especially when that commanding officer is also your girlfriend.”

“I promise that tonight, we’re just all regular people. No ranks, no relationships,” Shepard assured them as she pulled up a chair.

Garrus looked at her doubtfully. “Still sounds like a bad idea.”

“Don’t be such a baby, Garrus,” James said as he shuffled the cards in his hands. “I think it might be fun taking all the Commander’s credits.”

“I’m with Garrus,” Kaidan agreed. “This can’t end well.”

“You’re all chickenshits and you know it,” Joker piped in. “If Shepard plays cards even half as good as she dances, we have nothing to worry about.”

“Good point,” Garrus said. “I’m in.”

“Oh, so it’s going to be like that, is it?” A devious smile spread across her face. “Since you’re all so confident, what do you say we raise the stakes? In this game, in addition to losing your credits, you lose a piece of clothing.”

“Strip poker? I’m impressed, Commander,” said Joker.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Garrus lamented, pushing himself from the table. “I’m not doing this.”

“If I’m such a bad poker player, then there’s no need to worry,” she said. “I’ll be the one with all my clothes off.”

Garrus shot her a look. “That is exactly what I’m worried about.”

“You know, I’m totally okay with that.” Joker mused. Garrus glared at him, obviously uncomfortable with the whole thing.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Lola?” James asked. “After all, I am the undisputed champion of the poker table.” He sat back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Although I might do you a favor and lose on purpose. I mean Garrus is okay and everything, but why look at him when you can view this fine form?”

“With all that flirting you do Vega, I’d think you would be better at it by now,” she teased. “I'll take my chances. Now deal.”

“Yes ma’am” James responded. He shuffled the cards and began to deal.

Garrus reluctantly took his seat and said “Deal me in. Somebody has to keep this from getting too wild.”

“Party pooper,” Joker replied.

Within fifteen minutes, they were sitting around a pile of clothing in the middle of the table. Kaidan, already shirtless, decided to fold this round, thus avoiding the need to remove any additional clothing.

“I call,” Garrus said, laying his cards out in front of him.

“Son of a bitch!” Joker yelled as he threw his cards on the table. For a moment he sat there unmoving while everyone stared at him. “Fine,” he muttered as he reached down to pull off his shirt. His light, muscular body masked any signs of illness.

“Don’t blame us for your horrible poker face,” Kaidan laughed. “Even Shepard knew you were bluffing.”

Joker crossed his arms and and rolled his eyes.

“You’re up Vega,” Garrus said. “Show us what you got.”

“Oh, I’ll do more than that,” he said as he laid a losing hand on the table. He looked over at Shepard, and tantalizingly reached down to pull his shirt off and stopped.

“Quit stalling, Vega,” instructed Garrus. “You know the rules. Unless of course you’re too scared. We’ll understand if you want to go run home to mommy.”

James scowled and stood up. He walked over to Shepard and said, “Lola, if you care to do the honors?”

“What?!” Garrus blurted out, spitting his drink across the table.

“Hey, we just said you had to strip down if you lost. We didn’t say anything about who had to actually pull the clothes from our body.”

Shepard glanced over at Garrus, and saw that he was more than a little jealous. Smirking, she said “Alright, Vega.”

Before she could move, there was a loud ripping noise as Vega’s shirt was forcibly pulled from his body.

“What the?” James turned around to see Garrus grinning at him, shirt in his talons. “Hey, that was my best shirt!”

“As you said,” came the answer, “we didn’t say anything about who had to rip the clothes from your body. Besides, can’t you find someone else on this ship to flirt with?”

“Sure, but this is way more fun, especially with you in the room,” James replied as he sat back down.

“Well it looks like this round is mine.” Garrus started collecting the credits from the table.

“Ahem!” Everyone turned to see Shepard once again place down the winning hand. “I believe those are mine.” Garrus grumbled and pulled his hand back.

Towards the end of the evening, a fully clothed Shepard stood up and reveled in the sight of the four embarrassed and scantily clad males in front of her. “Funny thing about dancing. Never did get a lot of practice at it. I was too busy playing poker. Paid my way through academy.” She smirked, gathered her credits and sauntered out of the room.

“This is my cue to go,” Garrus stated as he grabbed his clothes from the table and followed.

Once they were in her quarters, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply. “You’re quite the hustler, aren’t you? I should never have doubted your skills.”

Shepard reached out for his hand and led him to the bed. He sat down and she straddled his lap. “Yeah, well I think you’ll have your chance to win a hand or two tonight.” She pulled off her shirt and kissed him again.

Garrus looked at her, so beautiful and sexy. He murmured, “I’m sorry I got so grumpy and jealous tonight. It’s just that sometimes I have trouble believing that we’re together. That you find me even remotely attractive. I suppose your first mistake was falling in love with me, huh?”

Shepard took off her bra and dropped it on the floor next to her shirt, pushed him down on the bed and breathed, “No Garrus, my first mistake was not falling in love with you sooner.”


End file.
